The Teskey Brothers Release A Cover Of Archie Roach’s ‘Get Back To The Land (feat. Emma Donovan)’

The Teskey Brothers are kicking off the new year by gifting fans with a soulful rendition of Archie Roach’s 2016 single, ‘Get Back To The Land’, featuring acclaimed singer-songwriter Emma Donovan. The release comes on the eve of The Teskey Brothers East-Coast tour including their show in Melbourne on Saturday January 22 with Orchestra Victoria, whom they collaborated with for the release of their recent album Live At Hamer Hall (Dec, 2021).The cover received the thumbs up from Archie Roach himself, who said of the collaboration:

Archie Roach:
“Listening to the Teskey Brothers’ version of Get Back To The Land gives me goosebumps. It’s good to see the Deadly Emma Donovan singing with Josh; their voices mesh. This version is just dripping with soul. To hear one of your own songs that has been taken to another level is really touching. I feel so humbled.”

Josh Teskey said of the track:
“This song is very special to all our hearts. Archie Roach – what a legend! He really hit a nerve with this one. Something we’ve all felt from time-to-time while travelling, that yearning to get back to the land we know. Plus it was such an honour and privilege to share lead vocals with Emma Donovan. She is absolutely incredible on this track!”

Emma Donovan and The Putbacks will be supporting The Teskeys and Orchestra Victoria at their upcoming hometown show in Melbourne on Sat Jan 22.  The Teskey Brothers will also perform this Friday 14 Jan in Brisbane, supported by Dana Gehrman, while due to COVID restrictions indoors, their Sydney show will be postponed to Friday Nov 18.

The cover art for the single is a painting titled ‘Desert Breeze’ by Wurundjeri artist Grace Brown, licensed to the band for this single release. Brown says her work is known for depicting “the many forms of connection between communities and the earth” – a theme that resonates throughout Archie’s song and this performance by The Teskey Brothers and Emma Donovan.

The Teskey Brothers rounded out 2021 with the release of their acclaimed Christmas performance with Orchestra Victoria, Live At Hamer Hall.  On Live At Hamer Hall, the ARIA-winning, Grammy-nominated group’s songs were spectacularly reimagined by arranger Jamie Messenger and performed live onstage at the iconic Melbourne venue with Orchestra Victoria, led by conductor Nicholas Buc, and streamed live to fans across the world on YouTube, but unavailable on any other format until Dec. The 50-minute performance features hits from the band’s two critically acclaimed albums Run Home Slow (2019) and Half Mile Harvest (2017) and their two original Teskey Brothers Christmas songs, ‘Dreaming Of A Christmas With You’ and ‘Highway Home For Christmas’.

The collaboration was filmed and subsequently uploaded to YouTube in December 2020, a Christmas gift for Teskey fans around the world who at that point were seriously starved of live music. The feedback was unanimously glowing, leaving everyone little choice but to mix down and manufacture this “masterpiece” into a live album for wider release the following Christmas, 2021.

Don’t miss your chance to see the The Teskey Brothers with Orchestra Victoria for these exclusive shows